Newt Gingrich dings Mitt Romney: ‘He was running to the left of Teddy Kennedy in Massachusetts’

After a week of attacks from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, polling front runner Newt Gingrich hit back Friday, accusing Romney of being more liberal than the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts when he challenged Kennedy for his Senate seat in 1994.

In an interview with The Transom editor Benjamin Domenech, Gingrich slammed Romney for refusing to support the Contract with America, the list of policy goals that Gingrich unveiled in 1994 when he led Republican takeover of the House of Representatives.

Domenech asked Gingrich about Romney's lack of support at the time.

"That contract is one that your primary opponent Mitt Romney did not support," Domenech said. "I wanted to ask you a question based on the..."

"That's not totally fair," Gingrich said, cutting him off. "He was running to the left of Teddy Kennedy in Massachusetts in 1994. He said flatly, he wasn't for the Reagan-Bush policies, he was independent. And he couldn't possibly have been for the Contract because, how do you run to the left of Teddy Kennedy in Massachusetts favoring a Gingrich contract?"

The two will face off in person Saturday at a debate, co-sponsored by Yahoo and ABC News in Des Moines, Iowa.

Listen to Domenech's wide-ranging interview with Gingrich here.

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